Prairie PROducers Podcast | industrial hemp: it's not the future; it's today – Details, episodes & analysis

Today’s interview with Aaron Rydell, is both exciting and eye-opening.  I met Aaron at a recent ag expo; I fell in love with their products and instantly asked if they would be interested in sharing their hemp story – of course they said yes! Aaron is an enthusiastic hemp farmer and business owner in Colorado. He has been growing hemp and expanding his knowledge and experience in the industry since 2014.

At Salt Creek Hemp Company, their goal is to provide a quality product for the unlimited applications of this plant through sustainable and organic cultivation of industrial hemp.

At Hemp Home Styles, everything they create is designed to change perspectives.  Their mission is to change the way hemp is viewed. To change how our planet looks. And to change the future for farmers. Their products are made using recycled and sustainable materials, utilizing a local supply chain, to bring their customers products that do more than just look beautiful. 

As you listen, you will hear how passionate Aaron is about the future of the industrial hemp industry!

Follow them on Facebook:

Salt Creek Hemp Company

Hemp Home Styles

Connect with Aaron directly: aaron@saltcreekhemp.com 

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp and agriculture.

In today’s interview, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vanessa Snyder. She is the Business Development Director at Eurofins. At  Eurofins, their mission is to contribute to a safer and healthier world by providing their customers with innovative and high quality laboratory, research and advisory services whilst creating opportunities for their employees and generating sustainable shareholder value. Vanessa explains how they are achieving their mission, and she also shares her passion for the industrial hemp industry as a Hemp Advocate, supporting the natural products and supplements industry.

To connect with Vanessa directly, find her on LinkedIn or email her at: VanessaSnyder@eurofinsUS.com 

Referenced Bill: Click H.R.841 to learn more.

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.

Sarah is the founder of Minnesota Hemp Farmers & Manufacturers Association. The purpose of the Minnesota Hemp Farmers & Manufacturers Association is to support and conduct non-partisan research, education, advocacy and informational activities to increase public awareness of industrial hemp; to work directly with farmers, manufacturers and end consumers to help educate and establish best management practices for the hemp industry, and to help restore community wealth through sustainable agriculture practices. Listen, as we talk about how farmers and processors are making huge leaps to open doors for the industrial hemp industry right here in Minnesota.

You can find Sarah on the MHFMA Website, on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.

My goal today is to explain what hemp is, the process of growing it from licensing to harvesting and what we are doing here at Prairie PROducers.

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.

In today’s episode, we bring in a hemp expert from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture: Her name is Margaret Wiatrowski and she is the Industrial Hemp Program Coordinator in the Plant Protection Division for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Margaret and I discuss the details of the MN Pilot Program for industrial hemp and how it will transition into the upcoming Commercial Program. We discuss everything from how the industry is evolving to licensing and testing procedures, and so much more! We hope you enjoy this episode, as she is a great resource for growers and processors throughout Minnesota.

To contact Margaret or Katie, you can email hemp.mda@state.mn.us

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.

In our very first episode of the Prairie PROducers Podcast, I sit down with Paul and Tim Seehusen and ask them everything from why the hemp industry to how farmers can get involved, even if they’re a bit skeptical. We discuss the vision behind Prairie PROducers and where Paul and Tim foresee the future. Tim talks about the process it takes for farmers to grow industrial hemp and Paul discusses the unlimited potential and impact industrial hemp fiber will have in the ag industry. 

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.

This summer, Prairie PROducers is launching a Podcast called The Prairie PROducers Podcast.

At Prairie PROducers, we grow and process industrial hemp fiber into user-specified sizes, feeding American-grown hemp fiber back into the American supply chain. As the very first hemp fiber processor in the state of Minnesota, our goal is to provide information and education on industrial hemp and explain the benefits and relationship of hemp and the agriculture industry. We will be talking to people in all levels of agriculture; from policy makers and university experts to equipment dealers and seed manufacturers, and many other hemp related companies that have already began paving the way throughout the nation, but most importantly, we will be talking to the farmers – the hard working men and women who have dedicated their lives to providing the food, fuel and fiber of our modern lives.

You see, industrial hemp fiber has many purposes and possibilities, including the solution to man-made problems; it can reduce our carbon footprint, it can draw out toxins from our soil, it can clothe us, it can create biofuel and remove our dependency on foreign oil, it can be used to build sustainable housing, it can decrease our dependence on paper, plastics, and nonbiodegradable products. We finally have the ability to put not only our health, but also the health of the planet first!

You can find our podcast on our website, prairieproco.com or wherever you prefer to listen to your podcasts!  And if you or someone you know personally would like to be interviewed, please contact us. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.

My name is Nicole Johnson, your host and Business Manager at Prairie PROducers. With a background in Ag Science and a passion for our natural resources, I’m excited to take this journey with you! Thank you for listening, we hope to see you back here next week, as Paul and Tim Seehusen will be explaining the vision, goals and processes of Prairie PROducers.

In this episode I interviewed Hunter Buffington, who is the Executive Director of the Hemp Feed Coalition.  The Coalition is a diverse set of stakeholders from across the United States and Canada. Their mission is to gain Federal approval for hemp and its byproducts as animal feed to create new markets for farmers, processors and feeders.

As the Executive Director, Hunter utilizes her experience; as well as her passion for data collection, by working with regulators, policy makers, universities, nonprofits and businesses to implement strategies for developing our emerging hemp industry.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed doing the interview!

Connect with Hunter directly via email: hunter@hempfeedcoalition.org

Learn more on the Hemp Feed Coalition's Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter!

BECOME A MEMBER

Referenced Articles:

Stakeholder Study

Pathway to Regulatory Approval

PRESS RELEASE: Hemp Feed Coalition submits the first ingredient application in the United States for hemp to be federally approved as a feed ingredient for poultry. 

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.

From all of us at Prairie PROducers, we’d like to wish you a Happy New Year and say thank you to all of those that supported us in one way or another in 2020. We are extremely thankful for the connections we made, the opportunities we were given and the growth our future holds. In today’s episode I thought I would give a podcast overview and a recap of our year.

We launched the Prairie PROducers Podcast in July, since that time we published 11 episodes. We interviewed a variety of people from our own staff, the MN Department of Agriculture, cannabis accountants, a variety of hemp entrepreneurs, and many others! Our episodes have been played over 550 times, around the world. In fact, we have listeners from 10 countries. Our goal going forward is to continue to share information and education on a variety of industrial hemp topics.

As a business, we worked closely with local farmers who each raised a trial grow of roughly 20 acres. Each farm operated a little differently, as far as planting dates and planting methods. Between us and them, we also experimented with cutting and baling methods. Overall, we believe the farmers were successful and learned a lot through the process. We truly wouldn’t be where we are today without them. Behind our facility we grew our own test plots, where we experimented with 5 varieties of seed, 3 planting dates, and 3 populations. We monitored stand counts, rate of growth and fiber quality in both our plots and the farmers’ fields.

Towards the end of the summer we had a Field Day, where over 150 people attended to view our plots, and learn more about industrial hemp. We gained many connections that day and are thankful for all that attended.

Currently, we have our hemp bales stored as we wait on processing equipment. Our Genetics Research Manager, Joe Dollerschell has been busy with indoor grows. He harvested feral seed, and is now growing and cross-breeding different varieties and documenting what he is learning. His plan is to plant these varieties in our test plots to get a true representation of how each variety grows in our Minnesota weather conditions. As we did in 2020, these plants will be tested by the MN Department of Agriculture for THC levels. This process is an internal experiment, that will most likely take years to develop best practices and a true understanding of growing industrial hemp.

In 2021 we plan to be fully processing and look forward to connecting with those that are either interested in growing hemp for fiber or are already growing for grain or cbd and want to sell us their fiber, to eliminate waste and potentially open another market. In the few short days we’ve had in the new year, we already have some great conversations going and can’t wait to share all those details with you as they unfold!

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.

In today’s episode, I interviewed Tyler Hoff, one of the founders of Bulk Hemp Warehouse. We talked about the retail side of hemp, as well as building a successful hemp-related business. At Bulk Hemp Warehouse, they sell a variety of hemp products; such as bags, clothing, rope, twine, food, oils, raw hemp seeds and more! But Tyler also has a passion for education and marketing, so you can also find him at   HempAware.com – which is a platform he uses to spread awareness about the benefits and value of Cannabis Hemp. They are here to shine light on hemp's essential uses for food, shelter, clothing, and 25,000 other things!

Ways to connect with Tyler:

Bulk Hemp Warehouse

HempAware

Or you can email him directly at tyler@bulkhempwarehouse.com

Thank you for listening to the Prairie Producers Podcast! You can find us on our website at https://www.prairieproco.com/, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also contact us directly at nicole@prairieproco.com.  We’d love to hear from you and we hope you continue to follow us on this journey of re-connecting hemp fiber and agriculture.